Need help with exchange 2010 hardware recommendations
Currently our company is using network solutions POP3 service for all of out email. We are going to be implementing exchange within the next 6 months and I am trying to get me hands around the overall cost to setup. We have 4 sites (single domain) siteA - 50 users siteB - 50 users siteC - 15 users siteD - 15 users I was thinking about a server in both site A&B with mailbox,client and hub installed on both. Then a single edge server in site A. Questions 1. Is a server in both A&B locations enough for High Availability? 2. Do I only need one edge server for the enire domain? 3. Will outlook preform well in sites c & d where there are no servers? 4. Can i get away with single (6-8 core processors) in each server, along with 8 gigs of memory or do I need dual processors in both? Thanks in advancejc
May 16th, 2011 12:37pm

1. It can be, You can always use a 3rd site. Depends how many server you've got. But can achieve with 2 sites. Configure DAG between the 2 sites. 2. You can have one for the deployment or multiple, for resilience at each site. 3. Depends on your infrastricture, network bandwidth/latency. 4. Use the exchange calculatro to get an idea. http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/v144-of-the-Exchange-2010-1912958d Also, depends on the number of users/load/activity etc.. Sukh
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May 16th, 2011 1:41pm

You don't "need" an Edge server at all. In most cases an Edge server is a waste of money. If you are going to put servers in two locations then I would have both servers exposed to the Internet with unique host names and the MX records pointing to both servers. This will give you complete failover for email without having to make DNS changes on your MX records. With the number of users involved (tiny) I would even consider a single server, maybe in a data centre somewhere. Even so, a single processor will be more than enough for that number of users. Have you used the configuration tool from the Microsoft Exchange team blog? That will give you more of an idea of the hardware configuration. However I see nothing about storage. Processor and RAM is a small part of the hardware configuration - the biggest area where you can get performance issues is with storage. Two arrays as a minimum, preferably three. No RAID 5 anywhere. When it comes to high availability, there are a lot of considerations to be made if you want to have an Active/Active configuration (ie active mailboxes on both sides). The main issue being a split brain scenario. What happens if the WAN connection drops? How does Exchange work out what needs to be active? Your best option may well be to get a consultant in to assist with the configuration. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
May 16th, 2011 5:56pm

Since you are comparing costs, you should also consider using a hosted exchange option. You can move to it right away and you don't have to learn near as much plus you have professional support, high availability and recovery. You don't give your connectivity speed which would change my answers. I have a similar setup with 200 total users and 8 sites connected at speeds from T1 to 100MB. Both Exchanges servers are in one site and it works great. I don't have an edge server as I use a smart host for inbound and outbound anti-spam and anti-virus. My firewall limits email traffic between my server and the smart host. --mccue
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May 16th, 2011 11:46pm

Hardware configuration, here are some links that will help you Memory http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd346700.aspx Processor http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd346699.aspx Server role ratios http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd346701.aspx Mailbox server role calculator (storage) http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2009/11/09/3408737.aspx Jonas Andersson | Microsoft Community Contributor Award 2011 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog | Follow me on twitter: jonand82
May 17th, 2011 2:47am

Would a raid 1 would the best for my below server specs? thanks again PowerEdge T710 T710 Tower Chassis for Up to 8 3.5-In HD (3Gbps) & Intel 56XX Procs edit Primary Processor Intel® Xeon® E5630 2.53Ghz, 12M Cache,Turbo, HT, 1066MHz Max Mem edit Memory 8GB Memory (4x2GB), 1333MHz Single Ranked LV RDIMMs for 2 Proc,Advanced ECC edit Additional Processor Intel® Xeon® E5630 2.53Ghz, 12M Cache,Turbo, HT, 1066MHz Max Mem edit Operating System Windows Server® 2008 R2, Standard Edition, Includes 5 CALS edit Red Hat Enterprise Linux Licensing None edit OS Client Access Licenses None edit Optional Virtualization Offerings None edit Secondary OS None edit OS Media kits None edit Enabled Virtualization None edit Internal Controller SAS 6/iR Integrated edit Hard Drive Configuration RAID 1 for SAS 6/iR, PERC6/i, H200, or H700 Cntrl (Non-Mixed Drives) edit Hard Drives 2TB 7.2K RPM Near-Line SAS 6Gbps 3.5in Hotplug Hard Drive edit External Controller None edit Power Supply 1100 Watt Non-Redundant Power Supply jc
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May 19th, 2011 7:56am

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